Chapter XV.

How the Old Law would root out anger not only from the
actions but from the thoughts.

But why should we spend any
more time over evangelic and apostolic precepts, when even the old law,
which is thought to be some262what slack, guards against the same
thing, when it says, “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine
heart;” and again, “Be not mindful of the injury of thy
citizens;”943943Lev. xix. 17, 18. and again,
“The ways of those who preserve the recollection of wrongs are
towards death”?944944Prov. xii. 28 (LXX.). You see there too
that wickedness is restrained not only in action, but also in the
secret thoughts, since it is commanded that hatred be utterly rooted
out from the heart, and not merely retaliation for, but the very
recollection of, a wrong done.